In Season: Roasted Sunchokes

In Season: Food That's Better for you and the planet
By Morgan Lee

Sunchokes - also known as Jerusalem Artichokes - are a vegetable harvested in the midwest during the winter season. They are knobby little roots that mimic the texture of potatoes, while being a bit sweeter with a taste more like squash.

This week I tried out a recipe for roasting them. A variation of this recipe. (FYI - all ingredients for this recipe can be found at the Whole Foods in Evanston.)

First things first, you have to preheat the oven. These ‘chokes bake at 375°F.

You’ll need about 1 ¼ lbs of sunchokes. These need to be scrubbed well and then halved lengthwise. I cut some of the bigger ones into thirds.

In a bowl, coat the cut sunchokes with 1 T Olive Oil and then toss with ¼-½ t salt (to taste) and ¼ t pepper.

In order to precook and get a nice golden crust, you’ll need to place the sunchokes cut side down on an olive oil coated pan. Cook these on medium-high heat for 5 minutes or until they start to brown.

Next, you’ll place these guys on an olive oil coated sheet pan and cover them with cloves of garlic (halved) and rosemary.

Finally you’ll bake these for 30-35 minutes or until tender and golden brown. Finish these with more salt or whatever spices you’d like! I added some goat cheese to mine (also from Whole Foods).

Personally, I had never tried (or even heard of sunchokes) before last week. All in all, I’ll be keeping this recipe. It’s not my favorite root vegetable (can’t go wrong with some good old potatoes), but in an effort to eat more in season, I will continue to use this recipe. My favorite thing about this recipe is having the entire room filled with the aroma of garlic and rosemary during the cooking process.

As always, if you have any questions about my recipes or ideas, feel free to contact me at morganlee2021@u.northwestern.edu. I started this column with the hope that other students would be willing to eat more sustainably sourced and plant-based foods once they saw that “it’s so easy a college student can do it.” Here’s to our health and the planet’s!